s 1Short title
This Act may be cited as the Data‑matching Program (Assistance and Tax) Act 1990.
This Act may be cited as the Data‑matching Program (Assistance and Tax) Act 1990.
This Act commences on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.
Chapter 2 of the Criminal Code applies to all offences against this Act.
In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears:
agency means:
the matching agency; or
a source agency.
assistance agency means:
the Education Department; or
the Social Services Department; or
the Veterans’ Affairs Department; or
the Human Services Department.
assisted person means a person:
to whom personal assistance is being, or has been, given; or
who is claiming personal assistance.
basic data, in relation to a person, means:
the person’s family identity data; or
the person’s income data; or
the person’s TFN data.
Chief Executive Centrelink has the same meaning as in the Human Services (Centrelink) Act 1997.
child, in relation to a person, includes anyone who is the person’s child for the purposes of any personal assistance or any tax law.
data matching cycle means a cycle the steps in which are set out in section 7.
data matching program means the program referred to in section 6.
declared income, in relation to a person, means any income, or income of a particular kind, of the person for the purposes of any personal assistance or tax law.
dependant, in relation to a person, includes anyone who is the person’s dependant for the purposes of any personal assistance or tax law.
Education Department means the Department that is responsible for administering the payments known as child care benefit and child care rebate.
family identity data, in relation to a person, means any of the following data about the person:
surname;
any other name;
initial of any other name;
any former surname;
any other former name;
the initial of any other former name;
where the person is alive, current residential address or addresses and any other current address or addresses;
an identification number for the purpose of personal assistance;
sex;
marital status;
date of birth;
where the person is dead, date of death;
surname, any other name, initial of any other name, address or addresses and date of birth of any living spouse of the person;
surname, any other name, initial of any other name, date of birth and date of death of any deceased spouse of the person;
surname, any other name, initial of any other name, sex and date of birth of any living child of the person;
surname, any other name, initial of any other name, sex, date of birth and date of death of any deceased child of the person;
surname, any other name, initial of any other name, address or addresses and date of birth of any living parent of the person;
surname, any other name, initial of any other name, last address and date of death of any deceased parent of the person;
surname, any other name, initial of any other name, sex and date of birth of any other child of a parent of the person if the child:
has not turned 25; and
is a dependant of a parent of the person;
kind of personal assistance of the person.
Human Services Department means Services Australia.
identification number for the purpose of personal assistance has the meaning given by subsection (2).
income data, in relation to a person, means:
declared income of the person; or
declared income of a spouse of the person; or
declared income of a parent of the person; or
personal assistance data of the person; or
spouse rebate of the person.
matching agency means:
unless a direction under section 3A is in force—the officers of the Social Services Department referred to in subsection 4(1); or
if a direction under section 3A is in force—the Departmental employees (within the meaning of the Human Services (Centrelink) Act 1997) referred to in subsection 4(2).
officer, in relation to a source agency, means a person with duties, powers or functions in relation to an Act matters under which are dealt with by the agency.
parent, in relation to a person, includes anyone who is the person’s parent for the purposes of any personal assistance or any tax law.
person means an individual whether alive or dead.
personal assistance means:
assistance known as any of the following:
assistance under the AUSTUDY Scheme;
assistance under the ABSTUDY Scheme;
financial supplement under the Student Financial Supplement Scheme constituted by Part 4A of the Student Assistance Act 1973;
assistance under the Assistance for Isolated Children Scheme;
assistance under the Aboriginal Overseas Study Assistance Scheme;
assistance under the Scheme providing living allowances for English as a Second Language;
assistance under the Commonwealth rebate for apprentice full‑time training scheme; or
a social security payment within the meaning of the Social Security Act 1991; or
a seniors health card referred to in subsection 1061ZG(1) of the Social Security Act 1991; or
a payment of financial supplement under:
Chapter 2B of the Social Security Act 1991; or
the Student Financial Supplement Scheme established under Chapter 2B of the Social Security Act 1991 as in force before the commencement of Schedule 2 to the Youth Allowance Consolidation Act 2000; or
any pension, allowance or other benefit or assistance given under the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986; or
any compensation or other benefit given under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004; or
family assistance within the meaning of the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999; or
an instalment of parental leave pay under the Paid Parental Leave Act 2010;
and, in relation to a person, means personal assistance given to, or claimed by, the person.
personal assistance data, in relation to a person, means:
the type of the person’s personal assistance; and
the rate or amount of that personal assistance; and
any information regarding overpayments of personal assistance to the person.
personal identity data, in relation to a person, means any of the following data about the person:
surname;
first other name;
second other name or initial of second other name (if any);
current address or addresses;
sex;
date of birth.
Social Services Department means the Department administered by the Minister administering this Act.
source agency means:
an assistance agency; or
the tax agency.
spouse, in relation to a person, includes anyone who is:
a spouse or a partner of the person for the purposes of any personal assistance; or
a spouse of the person for the purposes of any tax law;
and marital status has a corresponding meaning.
spouse rebate, in relation to a person, means the dependent spouse rebate of the person within the meaning of the Tax Act.
Tax Act means the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 and the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.
tax agency means the Commissioner of Taxation.
tax data means:
tax family identity data; or
tax income data; or
tax TFN data.
tax family identity data means the family identity data of persons that is held by the tax agency for the purposes of a tax law.
tax file number has the same meaning as in Part VA of the Tax Act.
tax income data means the income data of persons that is held by the tax agency for the purposes of a tax law.
tax law means any law of the Commonwealth relating to taxation.
tax TFN data means the TFN data of persons that is held by the tax agency for the purposes of a tax law.
TFN data, in relation to a person, means:
the person’s tax file number; or
the tax file number of any spouse of the person; or
the tax file number of any parent of the person.
Veterans’ Affairs Department means the Department administered by the Minister administering section 1 of the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004.
In this Act, identification number for the purpose of personal assistance means:
for the purposes of the definition of family identity data in subsection (1) and any references to family identity data—a number allocated to a person by an assistance agency for the purpose of assistance provided to the person; and
for any other purpose—a number referred to in paragraph (a) as modified by the matching agency.
The reference in paragraph 5 in Step 2 of the data‑matching cycle in section 7 to the matching agency extracting numbers from data includes a reference to the matching agency extracting numbers and modifying them as mentioned in paragraph (2)(b), and numbers so modified are taken to have been extracted from that data.
If:
the Secretary of the Social Services Department delegates to:
the Chief Executive Centrelink; or
a Departmental employee (within the meaning of the Human Services (Centrelink) Act 1997);
all or any of that Secretary’s powers under an Act; and
as a result of the delegation it is not appropriate for that Department to be an assistance agency within the meaning of this Act;
that Secretary may, by legislative instrument, direct that despite subsection 3(1), while the direction remains in force, that Department is not taken to be an assistance agency.
A direction has effect according to its terms.
A direction comes into force on the first moment of the day next following the day when it is registered in the Federal Register of Legislation under the Legislation Act 2003, or on such later day as is specified in it, and remains in force until it is revoked.
This Act extends to Norfolk Island.
The Secretary of the Social Services Department is to ensure that there are officers of that Department who are responsible for the matching of data under this Act.
While a direction under section 3A is in force, the Chief Executive Centrelink is to ensure that there are Departmental employees (within the meaning of the Human Services (Centrelink) Act 1997) who are responsible for the matching of data under this Act.
This Act does not limit the application of other laws of the Commonwealth except to the extent (if any) that they are inconsistent with this Act.
Rules in force under section 17 of the Privacy Act 1988, in relation to TFN data or tax‑file number information are not breached where an agency has complied with the provisions of this Act.
Any oath or declaration made by an officer of a source agency in relation to the recording or disclosure of information is not broken by the officer doing anything for the purposes of, and in the course of, carrying out functions or duties under this Act.
Subject to subsections (2) and (3):
data about persons may be transferred between agencies; and
data about persons may be matched or otherwise dealt with by the matching agency or the tax agency; and
the results of the matching may be given to source agencies;
in accordance with the data matching program made up of data matching cycles the steps in which are set out in section 7.
There are to be no more than 9 data matching cycles in any one year.
Only one data matching cycle is to be in progress at any one time.
The steps in a data matching cycle are as follows:
STEP 1
1. The assistance agencies give the matching agency the basic data about persons that is held by those agencies for the purposes of personal assistance.
2. The matching agency checks the validity of the TFN data given under paragraph 1 by using any algorithm given to it for the purposes of this Act by the tax agency.
4. Where the check identifies TFN data that appears to be incorrect, the matching agency gives particulars of the data to the source agency that gave it.
STEP 2
5. The matching agency extracts from data given to it in Step 1 the TFN data, and any identification numbers for the purposes of personal assistance, of assisted persons.
6. The matching agency gives the tax agency the data extracted under paragraph 5.
STEP 3
7. The tax agency uses tax data from not more than the 4 financial years immediately before the current financial year and data given to it under Step 2 to find out the following available data in respect of each person who has a tax file number:
tax file number;
personal identity data;
declared income;
the date of the most recent assessment under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 of the person’s declared income;
the amount of spouse rebate;
surname and any other name or initial of any other name of a spouse in respect of whom spouse rebate is claimed;
surname and any other name or initial of any other name of any spouse of the person.
8. The tax agency gives the matching agency the data found out under paragraph 7 and any identification numbers for the purposes of personal assistance of the person.
8A. If the tax agency gives the matching agency tax file numbers under paragraph 8, the tax agency may indicate to the matching agency which, if any, of those tax file numbers, according to the tax agency’s records, may have become known to, or used by, a person not authorised to know or use that tax file number.
STEP 4
9. The matching agency carries out identity matching by matching the personal identity data given under paragraph 8 with the family identity data given to it.
11. Where there is an unresolved discrepancy in data given to the matching agency by a source agency, the matching agency gives the source agency particulars of the discrepancy.
STEP 5
12. The matching agency carries out payment matching by matching the following data given by assistance agencies in Step 1:
family identity data; and
if it is necessary to do so—personal assistance data;
to find out:
if personal assistance is being, or has been, given to, or is being claimed by, persons who might not be, or might not have been, entitled to it; and
if personal assistance is not being, or has not been, given to, or claimed by, persons who might be, or might have been, entitled to it.
13. Where the matching of family identity data given by assistance agencies in Step 1 cannot identify a person for the purposes of paragraph 12, the matching agency matches TFN data given to it in Step 1 with the data being matched under that paragraph.
14. The matching agency carries out income matching of persons by using any identification number for the purposes of personal assistance of a person to match:
income data of the person given to it by assistance agencies; and
except where the matching agency has, under paragraph 11, given particulars of a discrepancy in data about the person to a source agency, the tax income data of the person given to the matching agency in earlier steps;
to find out if there are any inconsistencies in the income data of the person.
14A. If the source agency and the matching agency have agreed that this paragraph applies, the following subparagraphs apply:
if the matching agency thinks that any results of a payment or income matching appear to be results to which paragraph 15 applies, the matching agency gives a sample to the source agency;
the source agency tests the sample;
if the source agency thinks the sample may be wrong, and that the error may be corrected by adjusting an algorithm used by the matching agency, the source agency suggests the adjustment;
the matching agency makes the adjustment and repeats the relevant parts of the matching;
subject to section 9, these subparagraphs apply as often as necessary until the matching is complete;
if the source agency is an assistance agency, information exchanged under this paragraph may include the return of TFN data from the matching agency to the source agency;
the source agency must destroy the sample as soon as practicable after the matching is complete.
STEP 6
15. The matching agency gives to each source agency the results of matching under earlier steps that are of concern to that other agency and have not been given to the other agency in an earlier step, being results that indicate:
in the case of an assistance agency:
that personal assistance is being, or has been, given to, or is being claimed by, persons who might not be, or might not have been, entitled to it; and
that personal assistance is not being, or has not been, given to, or claimed by, persons who might be, or might have been, entitled to it; or
in the case of the tax agency—that a person might be evading, or might have evaded, tax.
16. Information exchanged in paragraph 15 may include the return of TFN data from the matching agency to an assistance agency.
Data may be transferred between agencies in the data matching program by on‑line computer connections.
A data matching cycle is to be completed no later than 2 months after it began.
Step 5 in a data matching cycle is to be completed no later than 7 days after it began.
The following times do not count for the purposes of subsection (2):
any time during which the cycle is interrupted by a computer malfunction;
any time during which the cycle is interrupted by industrial action.
Step 6 in a data matching cycle is to be completed within 7 days after the completion of Step 5.
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